President Donald Trump’s hiring freeze last year and other steps have left the nation’s disaster agency at risk of “having critically low staffing levels” to handle a major disaster, a government report Tuesday says.
The Government Accountability Office’s scathing analysis of the Federal Emergency Management Agency quotes unnamed FEMA officials saying they were “wandering around in the dark” as they awaited administration direction on staffing.
“Officials told us they have been operating in uncertainty and confusion while still trying to meet the mission with the staff they have,” the nonpartisan GAO found.
The report confirms fears that FEMA lacks the personnel to handle a catastrophe such as the two simultaneous hurricanes that devastated the Southeast in 2024.
